Gallo's Seafood — Restaurant in Philadelphia

PART ONE! I’ve been wanting Gallo’s for a while. My mom decided to surprise me and take me. I’ve been coming to Gallo’s since I was 12. I’m now 20 and just completed my third year at college. Never in all those years have I experienced treatment like this. I don’t know if it’s new management or new racism, but one thing is for sure: Gallo’s will never be graced with my presence again. When we first got there, everything was fine. But discrimination isn’t always loud. It doesn’t always scream slurs or wear a white hood. Sometimes it shows up in cold attitudes, quiet denials, and the way certain customers are treated compared to others. Anyway, my aunt, my mom, and I ordered our food. However, when they brought it out, it wasn’t what my aunt had ordered. The waitress said, “Oh, that’s why I asked you.” My aunt explained she specifically wanted the lunch with just fish and shrimp. The waitress tried to say it was only a three dollar difference, but it was actually nineteen versus twenty-eight dollars. My aunt didn’t want the extra items that came with the seafood combination because it wasn’t what she ordered. The waitress took the meal away, saying it had to be thrown in the trash. Later, I asked for bread sliced horizontally so I could put my fish on it, something I’ve done many times before. The waitress said, “There’s bread on your table.” I explained that I usually ask for bread to put my fish on. It’s always brought to the table. I just wanted it sliced differently. She said I’d have to pay for more bread. Meanwhile, she was constantly bringing bread to other tables without charging them. I didn’t understand why we had to pay. Frustrated by her tone and how she blamed my aunt for the order mix-up, I went to find a manager. When the manager came over, he was very nonchalant and walked like he owned the place. He never made eye contact and acted like we were a bother. I expressed my concern about how the waitress spoke to us, blamed my aunt, and denied us something we had never had to pay for. In a narcissistic tone, he said, “I’ll talk to her about her tone,” and “I’ll get you bread, but usually after the third basket, you have to pay.” I told him we only had one basket. We just wanted seedless instead of seeded, and the seeded piece was still fully intact on the table. He shrugged and walked away. When my food came, my mom asked if I tasted the scallops yet. I said no. When I bit into them, I immediately noticed they were stringy, tasted different, darker, and fried differently. I asked if any changes had been made, or if I could have some fresh ones. The waitress said she would see, then went to the back. She came back to the table and took the scallops from my plate, then returned ten minutes later. She said no changes were made. However, they didn’t even look the same. They were tiny. If anybody knows Gallo’s, you know the scallops are always a decent size. If they had just said the recipe changed or prices went up because of inflation, I would’ve understood. But to outright deny the difference when the scallops were clearly not the same was insulting. She then said since the manager gave the “extra” bread, they wouldn’t be making new scallops because either way, “I wouldn’t be satisfied,” because they were from the same batch. Then she brought the old scallops back out......

Up until this past February I had been dining at Gallo’s for at least 40 years. My husband and I were also regular bi-weekly takeout customers, and I took every out of state visitor I had to the Burger Bar. On February 21 I took my friend and her two young daughters to Gallo’s for dinner. We’d been there twice before and the two girls, 3 and 6, who are very good eaters loved their fried Gulf shrimp platters and usually ate every crumb, including the bisque. The server that day was terrible. She was slow, inattentive, and just plain bad. We asked several times to have the soup bowls and appetizer plates removed but it didn’t happen. When she finally brought the COLD dinners she stood there with a grim look on her face as there was no place to put the food. We had to move the dirty plates and bowls ourselves. Even after the food delivery she still didn’t take the soiled stuff away. None of us ate our food. The three shrimp platters we ordered were so cold the shrimp was rubbery, and biting into a cold French Fry is not fun. My friend ordered the Shrimp Alfred but wasn’t into eating cold, globby Alfredo sauce. Since the server had given us ice cold butter for our bread we asked for some that was at room temperature, and what a look we got from her! A nice young man came over to finally take the starter dishes away and he was very happy to bring us some butter. The girls and I each ate one shrimp and a fry, and since they were getting aggravated from hunger we decided to take the food home. It seemed like an eternity waiting for our check, with two hungry children who were starting to cry. We finally got up and walked to the server station looking for our server, but she was nowhere to be found. I saw another server who has waited on my several times and I asked her if she could find our server. She went looking and came out of the kitchen with our check but no server. I always tip 25% and did so that day, even though the service SUCKED. As I was signing the check she came flying over watching me write, and I wished I had given her much less as a tip. The worst part of this ordeal happened the next day when I called to complain. The woman who I spoke to told me that the server was one of the best and the most requested!! She told me it sounded like the kitchen was at fault, and had I asked for a manager (her) she would have given us grilled cheese sandwiches. We didn’t want grilled cheese sandwiches!! She obviously didn’t believe a word I said and had no problem trying to make it look as though it was my fault. I requested to speak to a manager and she said that she was the manager. I asked to speak to the owner and she said he was gone but would call me the next day. I waited 6 weeks and still have received no call. Gallo’ s certainly isn’t the same restaurant and I will NEVER eat there, in...

Me and my girlfriend decided to come to gallo’s For dinner and so on Friday evening I called and made reservations for 5 o’clock for Saturday. we arrived around 5 o’clock and we walk to the burger bar I told them that we had a reservation for 5 o’clock and so they seated us at the burger bar my initial impression was not very good. This is a restaurant that usually you spend between $20-$30 for a meal and the seating arrangement was not very good matter fact the table was sticky and the chairs had fluorescent green legs real classy !!!!

I told my girlfriend that I felt uncomfortable for starters this is an upscale location and people come here wearing dirty sloppy clothes and that’s OK there is no dress requirement here which is unacceptable !!! Next we were hand it one paper menu and I asked my waitress where is my menu And she said to me that “ we only like to give out one paper menu per table !! Why is that well that’s because due to the coronavirus we have to discard the menu after the customers use that “ well that’s pretty dumb how about you take a menu and put it between plastic and after the customers are done using it you wipe it off wiith disinfectant then you don’t have to worry about throwing paper in the garbage makes sense don’t it !!

overall we were disappointed we felt like we were at some cheap rundown barbecue shack being served food in takeout containers and eating with plastic forks and knives and drinking from plastic cups with cocktail straws. I ordered an appetizer which was calamari it came out to me in a plastic takeout container with tomato sauce it’s supposed to have cocktail sauce that was bland and tasteless without an ounce of seasoning and it reminded me of chewing rubber bands it was absolutely horrible. I mentioned it to my waitress that the calamari was pretty bad and so she replaced it with shrimp scampi unfortunately my shrimp scampi came out to me in a plastic takeout container and was somewhat cold and tasted disgusting. Both of our platters were bland and tasteless without an ounce of seasoning on either one of them. The worst part of coming here was some brain decided to put the garbage can between the tent and the burger patio And so for my whole meal I dealt with horseflies constantly swarming around me landing on my food and going back and landing in the garbage can and we’re worried about coronavirus !!!

The worst part about this meal is that it cost me $100 and was worth maybe $50 at best. It’s unfortunate before this restaurant changed ownership it was a Hero today its a “ 0 “ I will never be back again and I don’t recommend anybody eating at this place the quality of the food is just not there and the atmosphere is absolutely horrible and if you don’t believe me take a look at the pics. enjoy your slop and...